Here are a bunch of credit card logos you can drop on your website.
MasterCard
Visa
American Express
Paypal
After 37 years in the business, Toronto tour operator Conquest Vacations is closed for business citing, among other things, “unrealistic and unreasonable demands by the credit card processing companies”. Read more
Revolution Money’s announcement of $42 million in fresh funding was the big payment systems news last week. Revolution offers a credit card with dramatically lower processing fees, a flat 0.50% compared to the greater than 2% typically paid by merchants, as well as MoneyExchange, a free online payment service similar to PayPal. While many are excited by the prospect of an alternative payment system, considerable doubt exists about whether Revolution will be able to succeed. Read more
Paypal Wars was a really fascinating book, telling the story of Paypal’s early years in the late 1990s. The most incredible part of the story to me was how Paypal began losing 3.5% on every transaction, 2.5% to interchange fees and 1% to fraud. Over time they figured out the fraud and also began to move transaction volume away from expensive credit cards to lower-cost methods. First, they used the ACH network, which is almost free to enable people to fund their accounts. Second, as their network grew, they were able to internalize more transactions. They also began charging the recipients of Paypal payments and were able to make a positive spread on each transaction by the time they went public in 2001. Read more
Periodically Visa and Mastercard (independently, of course, since collaborating would probably violate antitrust laws) recently announced changes to their interchange rates and assessments. Those who read this blog regularly know that interchange rates are the revenue that goes to the credit card issuers (like Capital One and MBNA) and that assessments are the revenue that goes to Visa and Mastercard. Read more
The network access and brand usage fee is a $0.0185 per transaction fee established by Mastercard in the spring of 2009. It is similar to assessments, in that the fee is kept by mastercard, not passed along to the credit card issuing banks. This fee replaces a $0.005 per transaction fee. Read more
The acquirer processing fee is a $0.0195 per transaction fee established by Visa in the spring of 2009. It is similar to assessments, in that the fee is kept by visa, not passed along to the credit card issuing banks. This fee replaces a $0.005 per transaction fee. Read more
As you can see (if you are reading this post on the FeeFighters.com website), we are gearing up for a major redesign of our website. As a first step, we’ve rolled out the new design to our blogs… so that we can get a sense for how everything looks, and get some feedback. Read more
In my last post I talked about why you should leave your corporate job and join a startup. In this post I want to talk about how you can get a job at an awesome startup like FeeFighters.
Outright, online accounting software for small businesses, seeks to streamline business accounting. How are they different from other business accounting sites? Let’s take a look.
Lots of times FeeFighters users ask us what a personal guarantee is and when/why they have to sign on. This week’s kick addresses that issue as Sean talks the basics on personal guarantees.
FeeFighters recently spoke at a utility conference about how its participants can save money on credit card processing. After analyzing one of the participants’ credit card processing statements, we realized they could save 25% or about $30,000 annually on their credit card processing fees.
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour. My task: inspire students to consider becoming entrepreneurs. One of my pieces of advice was to expand professional social networks by joining LinkedIn.
We were having lunch with our friends Sunir and Mike from Freshbooks, and Sunir mentioned the event SOBCon. I had no idea wtf he was talking about, but he then explained that SOB stands for Successful Online Business.
By the time we talk to business owners, many have been burned by a credit card processor. They reach out because they have been lied to, promised lower rates, and altogether feel cheated.
Many business owners in these uncertain times are looking for a way to turn around their flailing businesses.
We had a great time submitting, organizing, and speaking on our panel on financial institutions and startups. Here are some photos from the event and a great summary from moderator Felix Salmon:
I was reading the New York Times, learning from Thomas Friedman about the myriad of Islamic uprisings that are about to occur and I was presented with the attached ad.
